Binocular Depth Perception in Subjects with Schizotypal Personality Traits.

An impairment of magnocellular and possibly parvocellular pathways has been suggested as cause of the altered binocular depth perception observed in schizophrenia. While there is evidence showing visual-perceptive deficits in people with schizotypal personality traits, binocular depth perception has not been evaluated yet. We examined 12 clinically healthy schizotypy and 17 controls with a stereoscopic depth perception task and found a subtle impairment in the schizotypy when high difficulty judgments on binocular depth were requested. Such impairment, similar but less marked than that of schizophrenia, may indicate a failure of plasticity during childhood and point to a possible intermediate phenotype for further investigation.